Pathfinder Society Organized Play
Announced in March, 2008, Pathfinder Society Organized Play is Paizo Publishing's organized play organization. Similar to other shared-world campaigns such as Wizards of the Coast's Living Greyhawk, Pathfinder Society features two to three modules a month, run simultaneously throughout the world. Pathfinder Society Organized Play centers on the sprawling city of Absalom, where five factions engage in a shadow war for control of the city's politics and economy. As participants play, the outcome of their adventures, actions, and deeds affect events on a global scale, turning the tide of secret wars between some of Golarion's most powerful nations. Organization Pathfinder Society is led by veteran designer Nicolas Logue who has taken a full-time position on the Paizo staff to spearhead the operation, working in close conjunction with Joshua J. Frost, Paizo's Director of Sales & Marketing. The Society also utilizes a vast array of volunteers throughout the world to market and run games in their local areas and at industry conventions. Like other shared-world campaigns, the Pathfinder Society provides the opportunity to game at conventions and at local gaming stores, but also presents a third, unique option for those wishing to get involved. Home games will also be a vital part of the Society, allowing a much wider range of players throughout the world to participate, regardless of their proximity to conventions and retail stores. Further, Pathfinder Society adventures directly impact the canon of the campaign setting, and reports sent in to Paizo by GMs running the modules are compiled by Pathfinder Society staff in order to affect later, in-world development. Game Play Levels of Play Players create a character at 1st level and retire them at 12th level to create more variation for players and GMs and allow for players to alternate through the five factions available within the organization. Factions One piece unique to the Pathfinder Society organized play system is factions. Every faction has its own unique history, culture, style and specialty. Each has its own modus operandi in the ongoing struggle for control of Absalom, and each offers the Pathfinders in their service different boons. A player's choice of factions is as important as her choice of character class or race, defining character in the campaign and tying the Pathfinder to one particular nation's destiny. The Society tracks and rewards the success or failure of a faction over the course of a season through a system of faction prestige points. Factions available to players are Andoran, Cheliax, Osirion, Qadira, and one other not yet announced. Seasons Season 0 Season 0, debuting at GenCon 2008, will run under the SRD 3.5 ruleset and will convert to the Pathfinder RPG ruleset in August, 2009 at the start of Season 1. In addition to the first four Pathfinder Society Scenarios, Gen Con 2008 will also feature a special preview of the third Pathfinder Adventure Path, Second Darkness, called Ascension of the Drow. In this massive kickoff event, over a hundred players will vie for their noble house to gain control of the drow city of Deraktinus. For the players whose noble house takes control, their evil exploits will be immortalized forever in Pathfinder 16: Endless Night, the final installment of the Second Darkness Adventure Path. Scenarios Pathfinder Society Scenario #1: The Silent Tide by Michael Kortes When strange reports of misty undead spread through Absalom, you and your fellow Pathfinders are dispatched to the half-drowned district of Puddles. Notoriously rough, the drooling addicts, flesh panderers, and quick-handed knifers of Puddles are the least of your worries. The night's tide brings with it an ancient armada of some long-forgotten war and you are the only thing between their mist-shrouded ghost fleet and Absalom's utter oblivion. Pathfinder Society Scenario #2: The Hydra's Fang Incident by Tim Hitchcock After an Andoren village is razed by the Hydra's Fang, a renegade Chelish slaver-ship, outrage threatens the stability of both nations. You and your fellow Pathfinders are sent to capture the Fang before the Inner Sea is pitched into political frenzy. You're not alone: the Fang is hunted by Chelish dragoons and the deadly children of the Entropic Kraken. If someone else seizes the Fang before you, nothing can stop the war on the horizon. Pathfinder Society Scenario #3: Murder on the Silken Caravan by Greg A. Vaughan Volunteers are needed to escort the body of a deceased venture captain across the parched Qadiran desert to Katheer. The Silken Caravan offers passage, hauling exotic treasures across the perilous sea of sands. You'll brave bandits, spies, and unwelcome mourners hell-bent on paying respects to your dead companion. Worse still, the caravan's mistress, a satin-swathed Qadiran princess, has designs of her own on you and your cargo. Pathfinder Society Scenario #4: The Frozen Fingers of Midnight by Craig Shackleton Skelg the Ripper, envoy from the Land of the Linnorm Kings, lies wasting in his villa on the outskirts of Absalom. A frigid curse followed Skelg from his northern homeland and grips his bearish heart in its frosty embrace. As the bizarre freezing ailment begins to spread among Absalom's summer populace the Society dispatches you and your fellow Pathfinders to uncover the secrets of the freezing curse before Absalom falls to its icy grip. References External Links * Pathfinder Society Home Category:Pathfinder Society